BharatX raises $4.5m in seed round to enable embedded credit

By Leandra Monteiro

BharatX, a Y-Combinator backed company, has raised $4.5 million in a seed round from Y Combinator, 8i Ventures, Multiply Ventures, Soma Capital and other investors to enable embedded credit in the Indian market. Existing investor Java Capital also participated in the round.

BharatX, a consumer credit venture, provides embedded credit by partnering with brands and websites to provide a credit feature in their apps to serve customers. It operates White-labeled Buy Now Pay Later and other Credit products on more than 50 consumer-facing platforms via its APIs and SDK. It aims to deliver seamless embedded credit experiences on several consumer-facing platforms across India, with zero credit risk and zero operational hurdles for the Brands it partners with.

Mehul Jindal, Co-founder & CEO, BharatX, said, “Consumers of India deserve a better class of Credit products out there. Today, if you look at the landscape, most players have low Credit Eligibility approval rates, long documentation sign-up processes and unethical collection practices. We want to give the Middle Class of India easy access to credit products that they deserve yet are not able to access today, while setting the bar for world-class UX and customer service while doing so.”.

“Our B2B2C business model enables us to not only win trust of users via the Brand power of players we work with, but also enable us to reach to Millions of users at Scale with almost Zero Cost…and with this new round of support from our investors, we’re looking to scale up faster & more aggressively in the near future,” he added.

The funds raised will be used to build & expand the team, enhance & develop the product further and for market expansion. Powered with a “credit approval rate” of 45 – 55%, which is 3-4X the market standard, BharatX aims to increase the credit stack on offer by launching new product verticals such as  UPI Credit, Pay in 3 and 15/30 day cycle products like Credit Cards.

Vikram Chachra, Founding Partner, 8i Ventures, said, “We committed to invest in the seed round of BharatX within our first meeting with the founders. It’s rare to find this combination of clarity of vision and flawless execution at such an early stage of a venture. Mehul and his co-founders are carving out a whole new white label BNPL category for India’s brands. We are delighted to partner with them as they pursue their audacious vision of building India’s largest BNPL platform.”

Arash Ferdowsi, Co-founder, Dropbox, added, “I’ve been very impressed by Mehul and the BharatX team. They have a clear vision for the future of e-commerce in India and the talent to make it a reality. In a short time, they’ve made the “buy now, pay later” experience seamless and instantaneous for both brands and consumers. I can’t wait to see what they build next.”

The most popular embedded credit journey by BharatX is the “Pay in 3” plan for High Ticket transactions on E-Commerce players, which allows the customer to split their purchases into three interest-free installments with one of the highest approval rates in the market.